Joshua Kasperek
            
               Lord of the Flies   By: Josh Kasperek

     Civilization vs. Savagery is a major theme in William
Golding's classical novel Lord of the Flies. There is plenty of proof
throughout the novel to back up this claim. To start off they are stuck on an
island with no adults, only children with ages ranging from 5 to13. 

      I believe that the conch is an example of civilization vs. savagery. In the
  beginning of the book Ralph finds a conch shell, and uses it to call the other
  boys to him. Later on they start to use it as a kind of talking stick. As the
  book goes on Jack starts to say that the conch doesn’t work here, and it gets
  broken. So the conch goes from being used as a thing to keep order to just
  being a pile of broken shell pieces.

     Another example is fire. They start
out using it to signal passing ships to come save them. As the boys get more and
more savage they start to use it to kill. The first instance is when they had
just made the fire it got out of control and killed one of the little boys. It
went from being used to help save them to being used as a weapon of
destruction.

     Yet another example is Piggy’s
glasses. In the beginning of the book he keeps cleaning them; I believe that
when he does this it symbolizes him kind of clearing his mind to help him think
more clearly and more “civilized”. They also use his glasses to start the fire
again and again throughout the book. As they get more and more savage in the
middle of the book the other kids break his glasses. 
 
     These are just a few of the many
examples of civilization vs. savagery seen throughout Lord of the Flies.
All in all this is a really good book and I would recommend it to anyone. 


                             Basic Writing Final          by:Josh K.                 
 

     There are many ways in which my parents have influenced my life, mostly
for the good but a little for the bad. One thing that influenced me was that
before we moved out, my step father always drank a lot so that influenced me not
to drink. Another thing that influenced me was that my mother is a naturally
kind person so I kind of gradually became a nice person. The third way is that
my birth father is always working so that kind of helped me learn how to take
care of myself. As you can tell parents do a lot in shaping the foundation of
the person that you become.

         
     If I won a million dollars there are many things that I would want to do
but here are the main three. The first thing that I would do is pay off all of
my family’s debts so that they could live happily. 
The second thing that I would do is move both my mother and I to South
  Carolina. The final thing that I would do is save the rest of the money for
  college, food, and bills while I am in college. This may or may not be the
  smartest way to spend the money but this is what I would do with
it.

         
     In ten years I don’t exactly expect to become a millionaire tycoon but I
do hope for a little improvement. All I really want in the next ten years is a
steady job and a house. If I find the right girl and end up getting married then
that would be fine with me. I really would like to be done with school, and not
  working at McDonalds. In the end who knows what my future holds, I certainly
  don’t so all I can do is take it one day at a time and do what I
can.